A Muggle Side of Things
by MagicalBackwave
Summary: Harry's summer quickly goes from awful to worse when he finds that his blood relatives have moved from Privet Drive. Found by an uncommonly nice Muggle family, Harry quickly realizes that the Magical World is no longer the safe haven that it had once been. Will he leave his friends behind to find something he never had? A Family? Harry/OC
1. Good Intentions Mixed With Bad Driving

**Disclaimer: Yeah... you guys should know the drill by now...**

**A/n: Hello everyone! For those of you who read my other version of A Muggle Side, thank you! I do hope you enjoy my new version of it, a story that was somewhat inspired by Paffy's _Behind Blue Eyes _and Wishweaver's _Realizations, _two stories that I highly suggest you give a shot. If your a new reader than I hope you enjoy as well. And remember! Constructive Criticism is Good!**

* * *

A Muggle Side of Things

Chapter One

Good Intentions Mixed with Bad Driving

* * *

Rain.

It was quickly becoming the main factor for this portion of her summer vacation being ruined. Other factors included, but were not limited to, boring family visit, the fact that they visited said family more than doing other activities, the fact that other activities were no longer any fun… Not that the constant rain gave them any chance to do anything. Dagger sighed. These yearly visits to London, and the surrounding suburbs, may have been exciting the first few times, but the past couple years had been absolutely miserable. The weather seemed to be agreeing with her these past two years.

From the moment she and her family had arrived in England, the weather outside had done nothing but be either cold and misty or cold and rainy. _Check that, _Dagger thought as a chain of lightning forked through the sky. _Cold and _Stormy. In fact, she hadn't seen the sun since the plane had gone down through the clouds as it was landing. The year before had been the complete opposite, and she had spent most of her time for those two weeks staying indoors and trying to beat the heat wave that kept threatening to make her pass out. That, at least, had been preferable to the rain because she could make herself feel more attractive by wearing extra short clothing (much to her mother's annoyance) that clung even tighter to her body as she glistened in the heat. She had turned quite a few teenage boys' heads as they also braved the heat that summer (as well as a number of disapproving looks from older folk).

Dagger noticed her mother's startled look and quickly realized she had slipped over to the wrong side of the road. Quickly swerving back into the left lane, Dagger cursed Europe and their opposite lane driving ways. Not that it mattered at the moment, as there were no other cars around and the pouring rain meant that she was already driving at a snail's pace.

The summer had more things that made it miserable then just the weather. While the people had been very quick to anger last year, they had still been themselves. This year was different. The people were afraid. There was definitely an unusual depression in the air and no one seemed to be immune to it, not even her normally upbeat family. The time spent here was spent mostly in silence, whether at the hotel room or her aunt and uncle's house, only broken by an occasional game or joke.

The events that had occurred over the past week had taken even those moments and made them far and few between. Disasters had pretty much been a common occurrence, starting with that freak hurricane that caused major damage in the western part of the country, followed by the destruction of the Brockdale Bridge and the pedestrian Millennium Bridge that had killed over fifty innocent people. There had also been a few brutal murders, one of which had happened just one street down from Downing Street, which had been all over the news. The atmosphere of panic was so thick that even her own parents had gotten their ticket home changed and they were now leaving two weeks earlier than they had planned.

"Sammy?" asked a concerned voice on her left. Another loud clap of thunder sounded as she took a quick peek at her passenger. "You doing ok?"

"Yeah," Dagger replied weakly. "This damn rain is just messing with my brain." She sent a quick smile to her mom in the hopes of reassuring her. The smile was returned, although it did not last for long. They were returning from an evening visit to her aunt and uncle's, a quaint little house in Little Whinging, where apparently anything that was considered out of the ordinary or different was a crime. Part of the reason they stayed at a hotel instead. Some of these people here were just so… uptight! Dagger would even go as far as calling them assholes!

"You just seem like you're a hundred miles away," her mother said. Dagger didn't respond. There was no need to. Her parents both knew that she was quite secretive when it came to talking to them specifically. Her mom called it "new age teenagerism" but she had stopped questioning it. At the moment, Dagger was certain that she already knew what was bugging her. It _had_ been on everyone's mind in the last few days anyway.

The rain seemed to be picking up, something that greatly irritated Dagger as it made her slow down even more. It pounded hard against the windows, prompting her to make the windshield wipers move even faster and making a move to turn the radio on. Lightning flashed as she leaned over to turn the volume up, blinding her momentarily.

Dagger was just looking up when her mother exclaimed in terror and tried to take the steering wheel. Her yell of 'Honey, look out!' was not so much being helpful as it was very distracting. Especially when she really couldn't see anything that was past the hood of the car, which made it much more terrifying when a large branch, complete with a thick complement of leaves, slammed into the windshield. Panicking, Dagger slammed on the brakes, something that was generally a bad thing to do when it was pouring rain. While still driving an excruciatingly slow pace, the car disagreed with the way Dagger crushed the brake to the floor and shuddered as it hydroplaned across the wet concrete. But slow down it did. Or maybe it was just time that had slowed down. Dagger never did figure out which.

_THUNK_

Dagger's head nearly went into the steering wheel, not having expected the car to come to a stop that suddenly. Exchanging an uneasy glance with her mother, they simultaneously unlocked their door. Dagger paled. It hadn't been a something that had stopped the momentum of the car. It had been a someone, a raven-haired boy that looked no older than her. He wasn't moving. She hadn't hit him that hard had she? Her mother knelt down next to boy, so Dagger flicked her frightened, guilty gaze from him to the car.

Neither the branch, which she ripped of the windshield and tossed into the nearest yard, nor the familiar looking boy had put a dent into the car, something she hoped was a sign that he was not seriously injured. There was another strong gust of wind, which blew the already freezing cold rain straight into her face. Ducking her head and looking away, Dagger noticed that there was a little debris in the form of clothes, books and what looked like one extremely broken birdcage that was being rolled down the street by the wind. In no mood to chase after it, Dagger instead gathered up some of the scattered items and kneeled next to the source, a caved in trunk that sat slightly underneath one of the tires. Not paying particular attention to what she was throwing into the trunk once she had gotten it open, Dagger wondered what exactly this Harry Potter (she had found the inscription 'Property of Harry J. Potter' written on the outside of the trunk) had been doing, carting around a trunk in the middle of a downpour.

"Samantha! We need to get him to the hospital!" In her shock, Dagger hadn't noticed her mother dragging the boy to car and had already gotten him into the backseat. Dagger quickly picked up Harry J. Potter's luggage (as best she could anyways. It was quite heavy) and threw it into the trunk of the car and got into the seat next to him. Mom had already taken the driver's seat.

The storm hadn't let up at all, turning what normally was only a half an hour ride into a much longer, although Nicole was doing her best to push the limit as much as she could.

"Does the name Harry Potter ring any bells?" Dagger asked, breaking the silence about fifteen minutes later, only a quarter of the way to the hospital.

"Harry Potter?" Dagger saw her mom's eyes peer into the mirror at her and the boy. "I think he's the boy who's related to the Dursleys." Nicole wrinkled her nose at the name. That was one family that she could stand to never think of again. "Vivian tells me that they try to pass some bull story about him going to some criminal school, and blatantly ignore the fact that their own son is part of gang that beats up eleven year olds." She shook her head in disgust. "Is this him?"

"Yeah." Silence followed her statement. It went on for a few more minutes before something hopped into her head, a piece of information that she had heard from her slightly gossipy relatives when they had arrived this summer. "Mom? Didn't Aunt Vivian say that the Dursleys had packed up and moved away recently?" Her mother's eyes quickly snapped back to the front mirror so quickly that she jerked the steering wheel with her. A deeply troubled look had appeared in her eyes. She however did not answer. Dagger didn't need one anyway. She understood the implications of that. Harry Potter been abandoned. Whether he was some "Incurable Criminal Boy" or something different, this was just plain cruel. Her hatred of this family, a family she had not even met (other than the insufferable Dudley character) grew tenfold.

Seeing a small dribble of blood slide down from Harry's forehead, a worrying cut that she found in his hairline, Dagger grabbed one of the towels that they had been keeping in the rental car to dry off and started to clean Harry up a bit. _Please be ok, _Dagger chanted to herself, also making a mental note of the lightning bolt shaped birthmark on his forehead. _Please be okay please be okay please be okay…_

* * *

Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, The Chosen One or Chosen Boy or some other such name that made him uncomfortably famous was most assuredly not okay. In fact, he was fully aware, or as aware as one could be under the circumstances (which was very little), that he was most likely in shock. He dully noticed the thunder that rumbled of in the distance, the sign of another approaching storm.

He didn't react to it though, instead simply stood there and stared blankly into the window in front of him. Hedwig, Harry's snowy white owl, hooted worriedly at him from somewhere behind him. Like the thunder, though, it was only dully heard. Until a sharp pain came from his hand that is. Hedwig had taken a more direct approach. It worked to an extent. Harry collapsed to the floor, leaning his back against the wall. Watching the lightning flash, Harry reflected back on the day he was having, trying to see if there were any clues to how or why this particular day continued to get worse.

The day had at least started out okay. He had woken up feeling not overly depressed, not overly fine which was a good compromise in his opinion. Not that his mood would have been noticed by the other students, as the news that Voldemort had returned had greatly lessened the entire mood of everyone inside of Hogwarts. Since the Dark had gone public he had been more… well public. At least the Death Eaters had anyway. The Ministry of Magic was in absolute chaos, let alone the muggle world, and it had only been a week and a half since that night in the Department of Mysteries. Dementors leaving Azkaban Prison, giants wreaking havoc on the western side of the country, a handful of attacks on highly trafficked muggle areas, and a few deaths of highly prominent members of the Wizarding World.

More troubling on Harry's mind was the death of his godfather, Sirius Black. He had conceded a few points to his friends (mostly Harry's ministry crew, but Remus Lupin had kept in constant contact since the incident) and no longer believed it was _entirely_ his fault, although he still maintained that it was still mostly his fault. They all had very good points.

Hadn't Sirius, after finding out that Harry was in trouble, done the exact same thing that Harry, after he had thought that Sirius was in trouble, had done? Sirius had been itching to get out of the house that he was trapped in and would have gladly jumped at the chance to save him. And how was it Harry's fault that Sirius decided to insult his mentally challenged, psycho cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, instead of focusing on the duel? Ron had taken a little bit of abuse from Hermione for the tactless way he had said it, but neither she nor Harry could fault that piece of logic.

Still, Harry couldn't help but feel responsible for his friend's injuries as well as Sirius. If he had only tried harder to contact Sirius! Then all of the mess would not have even happened! Finding the two-way mirror in his trunk had felt like a monstrous slap in the face and his mood had certainly reflected it to the school.

Also on his mind was that damned Prophecy, and the fact, in true Hogwartian fashion, that everyone seemed to have found out that it had been about Harry and Voldemort and christened him 'The Chosen One'. A name that was as equally ridiculous as Boy-Who-Lived and You-Know Who. The Wizarding World really needed to get a life if that's the best they could come with. Harry himself refused to believe that he would be the one to bring Voldemort down. He was Harry. Just Harry (He could hear the sarcastic comments from his friends, "Okay, _just Harry…_")_. _He had also completely disregarded Dumbledore's request to at least tell his closest friends about the prophecy. They just didn't need to know.

The train ride home had begun the downhill slide the day had taken. The usual Malfoy visit to his compartment had occurred, with Malfoy insulting his godfather in ways that the annoying blond boy shouldn't even know about. It had ended on a high note, at least, because Malfoy and his cronies had been cursed into next week by at least nine different DA members. However, Harry had eventually realized that he would still have to live with the Dursleys for two more years, nor could he even threaten them with Sirius, lest he wanted the new hole in his chest to grow even bigger. Harry had remained silent for the remainder of the trip, moping in his own head.

A whole slew of Order of the Phoenix members met him at the train station, all apparently with the intent of scaring the Dursleys into treating him better. But his Uncle had clearly been late. And so he, his friends and the Order waited. And waited. And waited. After exchanging pats on the back and hugs with his friends (guys and girls respectively), his friends had eventually been ordered to leave. The Order had been next to leave, emergencies cropping up all around the muggle world and they had been needed elsewhere. Remus Lupin remained with him the whole time and when it became clear the Uncle Vernon wasn't planning on picking him up this year, they'd bought train tickets to the local train station near Surrey. Remus had suggested simply apparating him there, but Harry felt that the longer he was away from the Dursleys the better.

Harry had also managed to convince Remus that scaring his relatives would be a bad thing in the long run and, when Number Four had come into sight, that he didn't need to accompany him all the way there, especially when he was needed elsewhere. So Harry had finished his trek to his dreaded house alone. He braced himself for all the scathing comments he would most likely receive like _"Oh you made it? We were hoping that you had died" _or _"So the freak is finally here? Oh well I suppose. Even a mongrel pup can find his way home at times"_. Definitely something to the effect of putting a padlock on Hedwig's cage and threatening to make him wish he had never been born.

A dreadful feeling had occurred after he had rang the doorbell the third time with still no one answering. _Are they ignoring me?_ Maybe they had seen him from a window and were simply being the welcoming family that they had always been to him. On a whim, Harry checked the window to see if could see any sign of life within. It had become night by the time Harry had arrived in Privet Drive, but it certainly wasn't late enough to take away the thought of somebody still being awake. Not as such. No lights. He couldn't even see anything inside although he felt as though the room looked strangely empty. And that's when the shock had hit him.

Pressing his face into the glass so hard that it hurt, Harry realized why he felt that way. Because the room _was _empty. No furniture, no items, not even any pictures were left. Harry had been standing there in shock for a good ten minutes before his hand had gotten close enough to Hedwig's cage for the owl to nip him.

Harry sighed. There had certainly been no clues as to _why_ today was 'everything's going to go wrong for Harry Potter' day. Now he needed to find clues as to where his "loving" relatives had gone. Maybe the place had been infested by bugs and they had been forced into a temporary living situation. That wouldn't explain the missing furniture. Maybe they'd been recently robbed and were still explaining it to the police. Harry amused himself with the thought that it could have even been Dudley rebelling against his parents and his Aunt and Uncle were still out looking for him. He had a sneaking suspicion that none of these were it though.

It was drizzling now, the thunder and lightning growing ever closer. Harry realized that he needed to figure out what to do and fast. He hesitated at the thought of walking back to the train station and staying at the Leaky Cauldron. His mind had instantly refused taking the Knight Bus, not wanting to deal with the hero worship that most of the witches and wizards placed upon him. Besides, Dumbledore had told him that he needed to stay with his Aunt and Uncle at least to begin the summer so that he would be safe. Well… Safe from Voldemort and his Death Eaters anyway.

A crack of thunder that seemed a lot closer than Harry had been anticipating sounded caused him to jump violently out of his sitting position and look around. He was looking for a sign of another wizard when something caught eye. He paused. _Has there always been a sign in front of the house?_ Dragging his trunk with him, Harry walked quickly over to it so he could read it.

Wondering if it was a bad sign that the lightning had stopped as he tried to read the sign, Harry gathered his courage and pulled out wand, muttering "Lumos," a spell that didn't even require enough magic to be considered a breach in underage magic. And he felt himself becoming quite pale as he read the notice.

Number Four Privet Drive was for sale.

Harry blinked. Then he closed his eyes and counted to ten. That didn't bring about a change in the sign. Harry tried again.

Nope. Still no change. Like the doorbell before, the third time still didn't bring about any different results. Harry slumped to the ground once more, a number of expletives exiting his mouth.

The Dursleys had willingly moved away without taking him. Without _telling _him even. Harry Potter had been abandoned by the only blood relatives he had. _If only the world could see me now!_ Harry thought, throwing his head back onto the ground and letting the rain splash right onto his face. _Oh! The irony! They all think I'm a pampered prince. _Sighing once more, Harry sat back up and let Hedwig out of her cage. He needed to contact someone. _But who? The Order is probably still busy. Maybe I'll send it to Ron and he can be the middle man. I'll be fine at the Cauldron even if they don't get the message right away._ Harry pulled out some parchment and ink from his trunk and did his best to keep it dry.

_Ron, Ginny, or any other Weasley,_

_I need you to get a message out to the Order. My 'loving' family is gone. And I mean gone, gone. The Dursleys have apparently decided to move away without me. I'm going to go stay at the Leaky Cauldron._

_Harry_

He looked at his work and scowled in annoyance. The rain was already starting to blur his hand writing. He tried rewriting the letter again but that turned out even worse and his original letter was slowly becoming unreadable. The important words (get, message, Order, Dursleys, move, and away) were still in good shape, so Harry folded it up a few times in hopes that would help.

"Sorry girl, but could you get this to any of the Weasleys as quick as you can?" His owl hooted an affirmative at him and grabbed the folded up message with her beak. She didn't waste any time and flew off. "I'll be at the Leaky Cauldron!" Harry shouted at Hedwig as she left.

Harry sent one last scathing look towards Number Four as though it had offended him deeply, swore at it as though it had started bad mouthing him, and finally stormed off in the direction he had come from an hour earlier, the actual storm picking up in his place.

It wasn't as though he had thought the Dursleys wouldn't someday leave him behind. Oh, no. When Harry hadn't known of his magical ability and after he had learnt that he would never gain their love, Harry had dreamed of running away from the extremely _normal_ family. He had also secretly hoped that they would simply kick him out. He supposed, in a way, that their moving away _was_ them kicking him out. Harry didn't quite understand why it hurt either. Harry figured it was simply because they were his closest relatives (although Harry painfully remembered that Sirius had told him that most Pure-Blooded families were related at least a little). More than that was, once they still kept Harry after he started Hogwarts, he had figured they just hadn't had the guts to do it. They certainly didn't want to be implicated for abandoning him. If anyone had found out about him, and there were signs of his existence despite how much the Dursleys tried, then they would be in heaps of trouble.

He wondered what changed their mind. Perhaps they just needed an opportunity. The older, sadly less fat one must have actually gotten a promotion. Or fired. Another viable option was that the Dementor incident, coupled with Aunt Petunia realizing that her sister's killer was alive and after Harry, had finally driven them over the edge.

It took Harry a few moments, but he realized that the hurt feeling he had experienced at finding his family gone had already come and left. Shortly after that, he pushed his pet-peeve of leaving things un-figured out away. He simply did not care enough. There was certainly no love lost between him and his blood relatives.

_About damn time! _Harry thought. _Good riddance I say! My summer was gonna be rough enough without them pushing me into blowing their house up…_

Harry felt as though he was thoroughly soaked to the bone by the time he came remotely close to being anywhere near the train station. The rain had just continued to increase in strength, making it increasingly harder to see. Coupled with the cold, it caused Harry to shiver violently, which only made him get hit with more rain because it slowed his pace to a crawl. _Hello common cold…_ Harry thought sarcastically. _Maybe hypothermia…_ It certainly didn't help that Harry was now sporting a number of minor cuts, courtesy of a number of flying sticks being blown into him.

Harry entertained ideas of taking shelter in one of the muggles' houses, which was quickly squashed. Harry was almost there and besides. The muggles around here all thought he was some sort of criminal.

Spotting a covered bus stop across the street, Harry eagerly started over to it, planning on changing into less wet clothing. So tired and cold was he that he didn't even bother with looking both ways before he crossed. He could barely see down the streets in the first place and he hadn't even seen a car the entire walk bit back to the the train station. No one was stupid enough to be driving in this weathe-

_SLAM_

Harry's right side exploded with pain as something extremely heavy slammed into him. He registered it only for a few brief seconds before his head hit the ground.

* * *

It had taken an entire miserable hour and a half before Dagger learned the full extent of the injuries she had inflicted on that poor boy. Nothing serious, thank god, but still enough to make her insides squirm uncomfortably. A pretty nasty bruise on his right side, his right wrist had been fractured, and had sustained a minor concussion from hitting the ground the way he did.

Dagger sighed. Even one of those injuries would have the guilt eating away at her. The fact that she only had her driving permit (her driving this rental car had been quite illegal, especially since the driving age was slightly older here than in the States) and had already hit another human being, caused her confidence level to dip significantly. She thanked her lucky stars that the storm had slowed her down so much, although she figured that no storm would have meant no injured Harry Potter. _Another reason to hate this yearly summer visit I suppose._

Currently Dagger was sitting next to his hospital bed, waiting for Harry to wake up so that she and her mother could take them back to their hotel room. Having had it confirmed by her Aunt Vivian that the Dursleys had indeed moved away without Harry, Nicole had decided that he would stay with them while they decided what to do with him. She was now discussing options with her husband, and Dagger had distinctly heard her express her displeasure at the idea of sending a boy his age into foster care before she had taken the call somewhere more private. Dagger had had to repress an urge to ask the childlike question of 'Can we keep him?' that she wasn't quite sure where it came from.

Instead, she opted for putting a hand on his arm in a sign of comforting him, even though he probably wouldn't notice it yet, and using the other to bring strands of the pink and blue colored part of her hair to her mouth to nibble on. A nervous habit. While not the objective of the first gesture, Dagger secretly admired the deceptiveness of his muscles. He definitely had them, at least in his arms. He was still well on the scrawny side, probably only an inch or two taller than her. She had seen them rip off the shredded shirt the boy had been wearing when he arrived. He had definitely shown signs of being underfed. It certainly didn't match the level of underfed that some of the other teenage abandonees she'd read about endured. Either way, her mother was not happy. The fact the both male Dursleys were fatter than whales had let them come to the conclusion that they withheld food from the boy.

_Hmpf. And they're the ones calling _Harry _the criminal… Assholes…_

Examining Harry once more, she once again found her eyes drawn to the lightning bolt on his forehead. Briefly wondering if the Dursleys had lost their minds one day and branded it into his forhead like someone marking a slave in the old days, but Dagger decided that it was highly unlikely. The branding part not the slave part. She'd ask him about it later.

Harry chose that moment to open his eyes. Very slowly, he reached around for his glasses (which fortunately for him were on his uninjured side), and then equally slowly looked around his surroundings. Dagger could have sworn she that saw him roll his eyes at the ceiling as though the fact he was in a hospital bed was a common occurrence. She must have imagined it because Harry was now looking surprised as he registered where he was. He tried to sit up, gasping in pain as his side disagreed with the movement, and succeeded, bringing his left hand across his body to absentmindedly rub his side.

His rubbing eventually met up with the point where he hand had been stationed on his arm, and he jumped a little when he realized what it was. He found her quickly enough, and went about using both of his hands to push his legs over the side of the bed so that he was sitting on the edge of it, wincing some more as he got used to his bruised side. He stared curiously at her, but didn't say anything. Dagger was too caught up with his eyes to start a conversation.

His eyes were gorgeous! They were an emerald green color that Dagger would have immediately thought were the result of colored contacts had Harry not taken the effort to find his glasses before looking around. With his thick eyelashes, Dagger had a few seconds of feeling threatened of this girl's natural beauty before realizing that it wasn't in fact a girl that she was feeling threatened by. Still, the eyes that were staring at her made her feel very self-conscious about her own natural eye-color; a rather unflattering grey color. She of course had gotten lightish-red (_they've already have a color for lightish-red_, Dagger thought automatically, quoting from an internet webshow she liked. _Know what it's called? Pink)_ colored contacts when she had been allowed too. Dagger shook her head to clear it.

"Hey," she said to him slightly cautiously. He cocked his head to the side and peered at her with a quizzical expression. He opened his mouth and closed it.

"You're very cute," he told her once he had decided on what he would say. Dagger blushed. There had been a slight slur in the way he spoke as well as a childlike quality to the way he said it, both signs of the concussion that she had given him. He seemed to realize that this wasn't a normal response to 'hey' because he shook his head a bit and looked slightly embarrassed. He elaborated a little bit more anyway, though to the floor instead of her face. "I like your eye color. I've never seen pink eyes before."

Dagger blinked. _Was he psychic? _"Oh, I have colored contacts." He shrugged in a way that said 'so what?' and she responded by giving him a small smile. "So, how are you feeling?" She watched him wince and return to absently rubbing his bruised side again.

"Like I had hot date with an angry hippogriff," Harry replied, now examining the small cast on his wrist and experimenting with his fingers briefly. Dagger giggled, both nervous and amused at his comment. _Hippogriff? _Dagger thought, confused but Harry was already glancing back towards her, a small smile on his face. "You wouldn't happen to have caught the license plate of the car that hit me would you?" He had definitely intended it as a joke, but Dagger's eyes drifted to the floor on their own accord.

"Actually… yeah… I did. In fact, I can guarantee it's in the parking lot as we speak." She could feel Harry's curious and probably confused eyes on her but she couldn't look up at them. "Harry, I was the one that hit you. Mind you, you should have been watching where you were going and you're very lucky that that storm had me going a lot slower than I prefer to be driving." Pause for breathing. "And you have a giant bruise on your side, and a fractured wrist, and something of a concussion. I'm so sorry and I'm glad you're ok!" _Not the best apology in the world… _Dagger thought, hoping that her eyes would show him just how sorry she actually was as she looked back up at him.

He was looking a little overwhelmed by her two breathless sentences, but his reply wasn't something she had expected. "You know my name?" Harry had said it so cautiously, as though it was either a bad thing or an annoying thing that she had learned his name before they had spoken. Dagger blinked. He was worried about her knowing his name and not the fact that he had been hit by a car?

"I saw it on your trunk." Dagger said in response. "Which I'm also sorry for. I may have… totaled it." Harry gave her an extremely startled look, though he had relaxed at her first statement. "Don't worry! I saved most of your stuff! A few books blew away in the wind. And I swear your bird cage gave me a dirty look as it hobbled away." He laughed weakly.

"That's good to know," Harry said and went back to being silent. Dagger wondered if it was normally this hard to talk to him. And if she should be offended by the fact that he didn't seem to care who she was. She decided that she shouldn't be, guessing by Harry's curious stare.

"My names Dagger Jovanovich by the way!" Harry raised an eyebrow at her, giving her a skeptical look.

"Dagger? As in a bigger than a knife, smaller than a sword dagger?" Dagger saw her mother peering at them through the window outside the room and smirked.

"Well, my parents are sort of like…" Dagger paused as though searching for the right word. "… Anti-hippies. 'Stead of naming me in the name of peace and love, my parents named me after a weapon!" Her mom threw her an affronted look and stormed into the room.

"Samantha Faye Jovanovich! How many times have I told you not to go around telling people that! It's completely untrue!" Dagger snickered at the look on Harry's face, a combination of wanting to laugh and not knowing if it was okay to. He eventually gave into it; most likely figuring out that her mom hadn't actually been serious about it.

"Hello Harry," She said to him, her tone changing into a sweet tone. "I'm Nicole Jovanovich, and this is my daughter _Samantha_." Dagger rolled her eyes. Her mom didn't understand why she preferred the nickname she gave herself instead of her real name. There wasn't much to understand really. She just liked it better.

Her mother seemed to grow a little flustered when Harry turned his emerald gaze to her. She had a feeling that a similar look had crossed her face when she had first seen his eyes. Although Dagger had managed not to blurt "Please tell me you have your mother's eyes?" Harry looked highly amused as he nodded at her mother. "Good!"

"Anyways," Nicole continued. "Would it be okay if I asked you a couple of questions?" The smile that Dagger had been enjoying slid off his face, and that was all the proof that she would need that Harry had been abandoned by those monsters. He knew what questions were coming. He nodded apprehensively, and then shook his head, hoping to clear some more cobwebs it looked like.

"I've tried to contact your guardians, the Dursleys but it seems as though this storm has knocked the phone lines in that area. Could you give me another way of contacting them? Cell phone? E-mail? Work phone? I want to let them know that you are at the hospital but will be ok." Dagger watched him panic slightly at the mention of contacting the Dursleys but she saw that it had morphed quickly into what she thought of as dull embarrassment. Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone outside the room taking notes and wondered what it was all about. She turned her attention back Harry, who was opening his mouth to talk but decided against it. He looked away instead.

Dagger exchanged a look with her mother, who mouthed something along the lines of "Comfort him." Dagger put a hand on Harry's knee, throwing him a reassuring smile as he looked at her. He sighed, his embarrassment becoming mixed with anger. "They weren't home when I got there. I don't know where they are."

"You didn't try calling them?"

"I don't know any of their out of the house numbers." Harry said with a shrug. Nicole simply raised an eyebrow, asking a question that didn't need to be put into physical words, _why would a child not know all of his or her guardians' phone numbers in case of emergency? _His shoulders slumped a little bit. "Because they didn't want me to bother them. I don't know where they are because they've apparently moved away without me. Happy?" He certainly didn't act like he didn't know that the Dursleys leaving without him had been a possibility. He looked more irritated by the questions. Dagger wasn't sure if she believed his flippant attitude about it yet…

"For now," If Dagger had not been her daughter she would not have noticed the furious edge to the smile her mom had presented Harry. It softened considerably when she noticed Harry shrinking away slightly. "Well, I need to sign a few things and talk to the doctor. Harry, be a dear and be ready by the time I get back okay?" Nicole pointed him to a set of clothing (the jeans he had been wearing were still in good condition, but her mother had had to go to a nearby store to replace the boy's shredded shirt and jacket while they waited) that had been left out for him and then stalked quickly out of the room. Harry sat quietly on the bed for a moment, looking as though he was struggling to understand what was going on.

"Samantha-"

"Dagger," she supplied innocently, receiving a mildly amused look from the boy.

"Dagger," he began again. "Why does your mum want _me_ to be ready?"

"Well, you're going to come to our hotel with us aren't you?" Seeing the bemused look appear on his face, Dagger decided she should probably elaborate. "Mom thinks- and me as well- that a hospital isn't the best place for you to be while we sort this out. Unless you'd rather stay here while they try to find you a place to stay?"

"I have- uh… No. No I don't want to stay here." He made a hesitant gesture, as though he wasn't sure if he should want to go with them.

"It's the least we could do, Harry," Dagger pressed. Harry's intense emerald eyes met her soft pink ones and she had an uncomfortable feeling that he looking for something far past the surface. He must have found what he wanted because he eventually managed a hesitant nod. With a little help from her, he stood up and shuffled his way to the bathroom to change.

"Umm… Sam?" a voice, sounding embarrassed, called from the other side of the door about minute later.

"Yes?" Dagger responded, turning red as she realized Harry might need help dressing himself.

"Why do you go by Dagger?" Dagger blinked. And then threw her head back and laughed.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah... I probably could have ended this chapter before switching back to Dagger...**

**SO... I hope you enjoyed my new version of A Muggle Side of Things! I apologize once more to the people who enjoyed the first version of it but it just wasn't working for the following.**

**A) Dagger learning Magic early took away from Harry's mystery when I could have spread it out over many chapters. It also had the issue of how in the world was I going to have Dagger let Harry know that she knew in a believable and not crappy way.**

**B) For a story that was going to be nice and fluffy, Dagger's past seems ridiculously violent. That's definitely not what I wanted.**

**C) Well, if you read the note before the chapter, you would know I had inspiration for this fic. _Behind Blue Eyes_ was always the inspiration but after reading _Realizations,_ I found myself enjoying the relationships Harry had with the people around him. I suggest you give them a shot as well!**

**If I didn't mention it before, this fic is also in my bumped up timeline. If I did my math correctly then it should be summer 2011. I also realize that the events I skirted over may not match up with Half-Blood Prince, but thats how I decided to do it.**

**X's and O's **

**MB **


	2. Accepting The Unexpected

**A/n: Hello all! Sorry about the wait but I was having writing issues. Mostly time, but I was going through that "I can come up with ideas for stuff way down the line, but not for the stuff I need to get through first" phase. Anyway here you go. I hope you enjoy it! And keep in mind this isn**'**t a mystery novel! I'm lookin at you Mr. Yellow! :) I do hope you still enjoy.  
**

A Muggle Side of Things

Chapter Two

Accepting the Unexpected

Harry listened patiently as the doctor gave him the diagnosis. Three weeks with the cast on, two weeks after that with at least a brace on his wrist, be careful of doing too much so that he doesn't get dizzy spells (just in case the concussion is worse than it seems), and to take painkillers after every meal if needed. It was strange to Harry that it would take so long for the muggle method to heal him, considering the last time he had a broken bone (they'd also been removed entirely once by Lockhart's horrible healing prowess) he had been out of Hogwarts's hospital wing within the week. In fact, Harry couldn't remember himself being in the hospital wing for the longer than two days for any of the injuries he had sustained at Hogwarts or otherwise.

Of course, Harry took the time the doctors had told him he needed to heal and cut it in half. He remembered all too well the last time he was this very hospital, years ago before he even knew about magic. While Harry couldn't quite remember what he had done to anger his uncle (something magic related no doubt), he could remember clearly the baseball bat his uncle wheeled, the excruciating pain, and the awkward way his arm had been bent. The Dursleys had actually been terrified enough to take him to a hospital, acting to the world as the concerned aunt and uncle who's nephew had fallen out of a tree and broken his arm. Harry had worn the cast the entire time he had needed to, but he had known that his arm had been completely healed about two weeks beforehand. He had chalked it up to him being one of those people who healed very quickly but perhaps his magic had been helping him the whole time.

Harry had been asked to recount his time with the Dursleys before he left the hospital with the Jovanovichs. He was tempted to simply say he had tried to forget everything that had happened before he was eleven (before the Dursleys knew that the Wizarding World would notice if he was hurt more like), but something about the comforting presence of Nicole and Samantha- Dagger had stopped him from playing that particular card. And so he had spilled the details of his life, at least of a sort. He told them, in slightly edited form, the details of the broken arm incident, the fact that the Dursleys had toned it down after that incident, and how they stopped entirely after he turned eleven. At least with the physical violence. A little more hesitantly, Harry had also told them of the Dursleys slave driving and of the name calling, the hurt feelings returning despite what he told himself hours earlier.

And then it was over. Harry had no doubt that if the Dursleys were found that they would be instantly arrested and sent to prison. He sincerely hoped that he was long gone by then. Nicole and Dagger reacted better than Harry expected, but he saw the anger grow with every sentence he spoke until Nicole had finally excused herself. Dagger had remained anchored to him, though he could feel her shaking with barely concealed rage. Even the police officer and the doctor who had been asked him tell them about the Dursleys looked disgusted. It was making Harry very uncomfortable and he zoomed out of room once the officer said he had enough information, forcing Dagger to have to catch up to him.

Harry didn't make it very far before the room started to spin, suddenly feeling light-headed. Harry found a seat and sank down into it, feeling overwhelmed once more.

"Harry!" Dagger called jogging around the corner he had just come from. "Harry, wait up!" She had nearly ran past him, but skidded to a halt when she found him rubbing the sides of his head. She took in his expression and cautiously sat down next to him. "Are you okay?"

"I will be. Just a headache." Harry did his best to smile reassuringly at her, but he imagined it came as more of a pained grimace. Dagger threw him an exasperated look that was clearly meant as a 'You know that's not what I was talking about!' kind of look. "Trust me Dagger, the Dursleys can go hide wherever they want to and I would be very happy never to see them again. Just leave it at that."

"But..."

"I'll be okay!" Harry reiterated. "Why are you being so nice to me?" Dagger had a grumpy look about her, not happy about the change of topic, but she let it go. She might not have said it out loud like her mother did, but Harry felt as though there was some sort of 'for now' attached to the look she gave him before she replied.

"I hit you with a car Harry," Dagger said, rolling her eyes as though she thought it was stupid question to ask. "I'm pretty sure there is some unspoken rule that says I _have_ to be nice to you now." A smile appeared on his face as he looked back over at the clearly American girl. Her accent gave her away, but Harry had taken a little longer to figure it out. He hadn't met very many Americans before. Or ever really. "Besides, mom says that I am a good judge of character."

A curious song started playing from one of Dagger's pockets causing her to jump slightly. She dug out a rectangular device and looked at it before sliding a finger across the front of it and sticking it to her ear. Harry saw the same apple symbol that was on the back of many of the portable music players that had become popular at Hogwarts since the electronics started to work off magic instead of blowing up. He figured it was a similar device, and clearly a phone as well as Dagger started speaking into it.

"Hello mom," Dagger said, putting a finger into her other ear so she could hear over the noise. Harry tuned out the conversation as much as he could, feeling that it would be rather rude of him to listen in, and simply decided to look at his new acquaintance now that his brain was functioning a little more properly.

Harry's first impression of the girl still hit the mark. She was a very cute girl. And in terms of looks she was vastly different than any of the girls he knew. Her wavy hair was a light shade of blonde that cascaded down to about her mid-back area. One side of her hair was colored in with two one-inch side-by-side stripes of light pink and blue respectively which she seemed to habitually tuck behind her ear, despite Harry watching it frequently come loose and cover a little bit of her face. Her face was a bit of a narrow heart shape with a small and very hard to see amount of freckles spattered about, as well as a perfectly petite nose and mouth. Her eyes were by far her best feature, a pink color that matched the stripe in her hair, a pair that, like Harry's, seemed to shine with whatever emotion she was feeling at that moment, despite the fact that she said they were contacts. Perhaps that was why Harry felt he could trust her so easily.

"…Yes mom…" Dagger was saying, sounding slightly frustrated. "I know how to take care… yes… yes… Ok I'll get him something to drink! Geeze! We'll be out in a minute or so." She slammed the phone back into her pocket and threw an exasperated look at Harry. "It's like she thinks I've forgotten how to deal with other people. What kind of drink would you like?" She led him to a vending machine nearby. Muggle soda was not a common item around Hogwarts so Harry knew virtually nothing about how any of them tasted.

"Anything will do." She put the money into the machine and out popped a brand of soda that Harry at least recognized (Coca-Cola).

"Don't drink it all before we get to the car. Mom has painkillers for you." Harry gave her an embarrassed look and mumbled that he didn't need painkillers. Dagger pulled another look out on Harry, the 'Don't BS me' look. "C'mon Harry! You're still holding your side and I saw you rub your head a few moments ago! What's it gonna hurt?"

Dagger gave Harry a little push towards the exit of the building, catching him when he stumbled a bit more than necessary. Despite Harry trying to plead that he was fine to walk on his own, Dagger linked one of her arms with Harry's, leading him out to a car that was parked outside. She offered him the shotgun seat and got into the car seat behind him. Nicole smiled at Harry and offered him two tiny tablets after she watched him wince his way into a more comfortable position. He ignored them for fifteen full seconds before his fidgeting around started to become extra painful. He definitely ignored Dagger's smirk as he popped them in his mouth.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Harry asked, feeling unsure of himself as they started down the road. "I mean, I could always find a place to stay on my own." Harry definitely wasn't sure who it was, but there was a loud hissing sound that came from either Dagger or her mom. Possibly both.

"And where would you go?" Nicole asked him in a false sweet voice that Harry detected easily.

"Well… I could take a bus to London… find a room…" _It's two in the morning now. Trains and Buses probably are not running at this time... Idiot… _It was still pouring outside so Mrs. Jovanovich didn't actual look over at him, but Harry could feel the raised eyebrow she would be giving him, as well as the equally annoyed scowl coming from the girl behind him.

"No. You're going to stay with us and that's final." Harry couldn't place the emotion behind the comment. No, the order. What Harry did know was that if he turned her down, she would have to power to convince him otherwise. More interesting than that was the anxiety he was now feeling towards returning to the magical world. It was almost as if he didn't want to go back… but that couldn't be right. He had friends there and it was his home! _Home, _came a sarcastic thought in the back of his head. _Since when have people considered their home a prison? Sirius did and just look at him! He was miserable and fled from the place as soon as he could!_Harry shook his unbidden thoughts away, pushing the heartache that came from thinking of his godfather back inside.

"Harry, we want to help you." Nicole was saying. "It wouldn't feel right to me if we just left you there with no place to go to."

"Besides!" Dagger added happily. "It's not as if we don't have enough room for you to stay with us. At the hotel or back at the house!"

"Ahem, Dagger perhaps we should wait until we know _all_ of Harry's options."

"Hmmm… Er… What?" Harry was definitely tired. Was Dagger implying that he could live with them? No. No. The last thing he heard was they just wanted to help him and then… Nodding off… There was a light amount of laughter in the car.

"Perhaps we should wait until he's awake enough to understand as well." Nicole said as Harry took another sip of his soda. It helped very little. "Go ahead and sleep Harry. It'll be another hour if this rain doesn't clear up."

"No, I'll be okay. So where are you from anyways?" Harry asked, rubbing his eyes and hoping that it would wake him up. Damn painkilling medicines.

"We live in New Jersey. Little town called Avon."

"Oh, that's… that's… Yeah, I don't where that is… Somewhere in the States I imagine." They were turning onto a highway, speeding up as the rain died down enough to see normal distances again. Harry thought he saw a formation of birds flying in the distance. No, each shape was too big to be a bird. Broom riders, maybe? The Order? Harry blinked.

"Harry… HARRY!" Harry jumped. The car was still now, the engine no longer running.

"Huh?" He asked stupidly, rubbing his eyes to clear them.

"We're here!" Dagger was standing outside his door with a big grin on her face. He scowled at her as he unclicked his seatbelt.

"Well duh…" He stumbled a little when he stood, still not feeling entirely balanced but Dagger didn't let him fall over, although that didn't keep her from snickering at him. Harry scowled at her again and started wheeling his trunk after Dagger's mom, it's now lone wheel protesting the entire way. Thankfully it held up and nothing ended up on the wet concrete.

They were obviously in London, at a hotel that Harry only knew because he passed it every year when he came and went from King's Cross. Harry also knew that it was only a short distance from the Leaky Cauldron. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about being this close to the other world. His foggy mind didn't help him out at all, so Harry allowed himself to be dragged into the hotel by Dagger, who'd caught up to him.

Dagger's hotel room was located on the ninth floor, and even though they took an elevator up, Harry felt as though he'd walked up nine floors worth of stairs. He swayed on his feet as he waited for the elevator to stop on their floor and would've fallen over in the hallway if Mrs. Jovanovich hadn't taken his trunk and Dagger hadn't thrown her arm around his shoulder. At Room 903, they stopped to unlock the door.

The room was pretty simple. Two king size beds, a couple chairs, a small kitchen/dining area, and a large comfy looking couch. A man, Dagger's dad most likely, was watching the television and wore a relieved look as he saw the group walk in. It was clear that Dagger got her looks from mostly from her mother. The man had short dark brown hair and was much taller than both his wife and Dagger. He had a pair of gray eyes that reminded Harry uncomfortably of Malfoy. However they didn't hold the same cruel light that Malfoy's held.

"Hello fam- Geeze Sammy! You certainly did a number on the boy, didn't you?" Dagger turned red, and removed her arm from around Harry's shoulders so she could cross them and glare at her Dad. The glare moved back to Harry as he let out a weak laugh. Dagger's dad stuck his hand out for Harry to shake.

"And you must be- WOAH!" Harry blinked again. The sun had risen behind the mask of grey-mist caused by the Dementors. He was lying on a bed that was way too comfortable to be his bed at Privet Drive. For a moment, Harry was unsure of where he had ended up but he quickly remembered the night before. The rain, the hospital, the car ride, and then walking up to the hotel.

His movements felt sluggish, but Harry eventually managed to sit up. Dagger and her mom and dad were sitting at the little table playing a game of cards it looked like. Harry smelt warm breakfast type foods, but they seemed to have already finished eating. His stomach wondered if they had left him any food. Harry yawned and stretched, his movement picking up speed as his brain woke up. He frowned at the cast on his arm. It wasn't very big but it still made his arm feel extra heavy. Dagger must've found a marker as well. _I'm sorry I tried to run you over! Dagger _was written across the entire top of the cast in a fancy cursive script.

_It could be worse, _Harry thought. _My wand could've been broken as well… MY WAND!_ Panicking, Harry reached to his back pocket, wincing as his brain remembered that his body was extremely bruised. But Harry sighed with relief as he felt his most important tool still where he kept it on his person, and still intact. It wouldn't do well to have another broken wand situation.

Harry slipped out of the bed, gingerly putting weight on his leg. He still nearly collapsed but caught himself before he caused himself another injury.

"Easy there, kiddo," a male voice said to Harry. "We definitely don't want you anymore hurt than you already are." Harry looked over and saw that all three of the muggles had risen and were halfway from the table to the bed. Harry winced.

"Umm… Hi. I'm up," Harry said weakly and unnecessarily. Dagger rolled her eyes with an amused snort and sat back down at her chair. Nicole had a mostly worried expression on her face, mirrored by her husband, although he had a tinge of exasperation mixed in as well.

"You're going to be stubborn about being injured aren't you? The whole 'it's not that bad' deal?" Harry said nothing as he limped over to the table. Dagger's dad just shook his head a little. "Asked and answered. Well if you didn't guess, I'm Dagger's father, Cameron."

"Nice to meet you." Harry said politely. His stomach growled audibly this time. Dagger giggled and the worry from her parents melted slightly.

"Sorry Harry, but that beast," Nicole pointed at Dagger who looked unashamed, "Ate your share of breakfast. It's almost noon now but would you still like breakfast food or just skip to lunchy stuff?"

"Breakfast, please." Harry answered automatically.

"Okay then! Now, we certainly have a lot to talk about but why don't you wash up first." She pointed Harry to the bathroom. Harry nodded. Before he closed the door though, Nicole called out "Oh wait! Are you going to need help undressing? Samantha why don't you go help him."

"Umm… T-that's okay," Harry stammered. "It's really not as a bad as it- shoot…" Dagger's dad gave her and her mom that 'what did I tell you' look as he laughed. "Look, I'll call out if I need help." Harry closed the door very quickly, trying to keep them from seeing him turn even redder. Nicole joined in with the laughter and Dagger as well, although he detected a little bit of nervousness in it.

Undressing was a little tedious, but Harry managed well enough without help, keeping embarrassment to the minimum of what just happened. Without looking at a mirror, Harry started the water and stepped in.

* * *

"Ah, the victim resurfaces," came Nicole's quip as he emerged from the bathroom three-quarters of an hour later. Harry gestured to his casted arm, and Nicole grimaced. "Well, Cameron should be back any minute with your food. Why don't you go pry those headphones out of my daughter's ears while you wait?"

True to the stereotypical teenage girl, Dagger was lying face down on the bed with her pair of headphones blasting music that Harry could hear across the room. She was bobbing her head in time with the song, and she was clearly doing that texting thing that had become more of a staple with these portable phones than actually using it to call people. Perhaps Harry could see what the hype was about, now that he wouldn't have to hide the fact that he had money for whatever he wanted.

Since Dagger was oblivious to the world around her, it was easy to sneak up on her. Harry had a quick mental debate with himself about whether he should spook her or not.

"Psst!" Harry looked over towards Dagger's mother, who mimed what Harry figured was a tickling motion, pointed at her side and then pointed back to Dagger with a wink. Harry grinned and did just that.

Dagger jumped violently, and then rolled over so fast that she lost her grip on her phone. It sailed into the air, ripping the ear buds out of her ears. Harry's reflexes weren't quite as sharp as they should have been, but he still managed to catch the phone after juggling it in his good hand momentarily.

"Harry! That was so uncool!" Dagger was clutching her heart and glaring extremely hard at Harry while Nicole sat in the background laughing. Harry simply smirked at her. Her glare didn't last for very long and it gave way to her typical rolling of her eyes. "I suppose I deserved that. Nice catch."

"I agree! It's nice that I don't have to replace her phone yet again!" Mrs. Jovanovich said, with a look that told Harry volumes about how many times Dagger had damaged her phone before this. Harry snickered.

"Hey!" Dagger shouted indignantly. "It wouldn't have broken!"

"What wouldn't have broken?" Dagger's dad asked as he walked into the room. He handed Harry a bag of McDonalds and told him to dig in, which Harry proceeded to do. '_Mmmm… Cinnamon rolls…' _

"Well?" Cameron asked turning back to the others.

"Oh, Harry scared the bejezzus out of Dagger and she threw her phone in fear! Harry caught it though." Dagger let out a 'hmpf' noise and stuck one of the headphones back into her ear. She did turn down the volume on it dramatically, so Harry could no longer hear it.

"Well then, thank you Harry!" Mr. Jovanovich said with a mischievous smile on his face. "You just saved us the hassle of having to buy her a new one. You know how teenage girls are about their cellphones, am I right?" Harry only had an inkling of what he was talking about (phones were still largely unreliable around Hogwarts despite the electronic wards that were up there), but he still raised his fork in a 'no problem' gesture before plowing into the food again.

"If we're all done playing Pick-On-Daggeropoly…" Nicole coughed 'Samanthaopoly' under her breath earning a harsh glare from said girl. Harry and Cameron were both trying not to laugh, a lost cause once they glanced at each other.

'_These people are very easy to get along with,' _Harry thought absentmindedly as Dagger sighed and shook her head.

"Don't we have important things to be talking about?" Dagger said a little harshly, looking not so subtly at Harry and then at her parents.

"Now Sam, let the boy eat! Getting hi-"

"Dad! Don't start!" Throwing one last amused look at his wife, Cameron decided that continuing to tease Dagger would be a bad idea. Good thing too. Dagger's reddening face looked hot enough to spontaneously burst into flames. Harry was definitely sure that wouldn't be good for her at all.

"No, that's alright. I'm pretty good at eating and talking." Harry said, pausing to take a sip of chocolate milk.

It was clear enough to Harry that they did not start off with anything near what he would consider an 'important thing'. They covered Harry's likes and dislikes first, usually answering their own questions at the same time. Then came Harry's story. With Hogwart's obviously having to be omitted, Harry spun a tale of going to Stonewall, the public school he would have gone to if he hadn't found out about being a wizard. They asked about grades but since Harry hadn't really been allowed to be 'smarter' than Dudley, his grades weren't really any good to begin with.

Dagger's parents also asked about friends, something to which Harry struggled with answering truthfully. He had an idea of why they asked, but the idea of living with any one of his friends seemed laughable. For one he barely knew where any of them lived, save the Weasleys, and two… well there was no need to put anyone else in danger by just being around them. So, Harry kept it vague, explaining that he did have a few friends, but he'd never really interacted with them under Dudley's fearsome reign (which had been largely true anyway).

"So you don't really have anybody you could stay with?" Harry shook his head dejectedly, still cursing his hurt feelings about the people he didn't even like. '_It's probably only because they're my only blood relatives left,'_ Harry thought bitterly. He once again pushed the feeling away, hoping that would stay gone this time.

Harry quickly tried to think up a way to explain that he had plenty of money to live on his own if he had to (a futile effort he figured), but Dagger's mom beat him to the punch.

"Well then, it's final!" Nicole said with a snap of her fingers. "You're coming to live with us!" Again her language didn't leave a whole lot of room for argument. But Harry's nature was naturally to reject this development. At least in his head. His body seemed learn how to speak on its own.

"Y-You'd really just let me live with you?" He seemed to be saying. Their smile made it clear that they'd already discussed it and had a decision. But one wanted to be sure, even if that person's head was still trying to come up with all the reasons why this was a bad idea.

"Hey, I know we just met you-"

"And this is crazy!" Dagger interjected in a singing tone, smiling innocently at her mother. She got an unimpressed look in response, but Nicole just continued as if nothing happened.

"In a very unusual way," she continued. "But, I wouldn't feel right if we just left you here with nowhere to go. None of us would." Dagger and Cameron both nodded emphatically. "We certainly have plenty of room for you back in Avon."

"So you're coming with us! No choice!" Dagger said in what she figured was a helpful tone, as if Harry should realize that there was no other option. And so it was decided. Harry would be going with the Jovanovichs. He hadn't even come close to having a compelling reason to stay. The arguments to leave however…

'_Crazy megalomaniac killer after me? Check. An entire world that thinks I'm going to save them from said megalomaniac? Check. A prophecy that pretty much says exactly that? Check. The person that I wanted to live with just died? Sirius…_

Hours later, Harry was still stunned by the turn of events. He had accepted their decision way too easily. Or something. He should have argued, told them he would be fine on his own. Cameron was already finding Harry a plane ticket to New Jersey and Nicole was out shopping for a new suitcase to replace the smashed one.

_Tap Tap Tap._

Harry looked up towards the noise. Hedwig had returned from her trip to the Weasleys. He could see the letter in attached her claw but he was fairly certain that hotel windows would open that way.

"I'll meet you outside, okay girl?" Hedwig hooted her understanding and flew off. Dagger was luckily enough in her own little world. She did talk to Harry for a while after her parents went out, but she eventually went off to texting her friends the news.

"Hey, Dagger?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm going to go outside for a bit, get some fresh air." Dagger rolled over so she could look at him.

"Do you want me to come with you?" She looked a little concerned.

"No, no that's ok. Just a little overwhelmed, you know?" She nodded at him, apparently understanding the feeling.

"Just don't be gone too long! I don't want to worry." Dagger smiled at him briefly and then disappeared into her phone again.

Hedwig was waiting on the canopy when Harry walked outside. She led him to a tree located on the side of the parking lot, kind of out of the way from prying eyes. Harry retrieved the letter from her leg. It was from Ron.

_Harry,_

_Mate, is everything ok? Looks like Hedwig got caught in a storm. Couldn't read a word of it._

_If you're fine then I guess I can complain a little bit. Mum's really gone off the deep end. Threatened to keep me and Ginny from going back to Hogwarts. Says it's not safe enough. I know you-know-who's on a rampage, but Hogwarts not being safe? Completely barmy! We talked her out it though so it's alright!_

_Fleur Delacour (you remember her right? The half-veela from Beauxbatons?) is staying with us at the moment. She's engaged to Bill now. It's a little embarrassing but she still surprises me from time to time and I get caught staring at her occasionally. Ginny keeps threatening to tell Hermione when she gets here in a few weeks, although I can't figure out why she's threatening me with Hermione. I don't think she likes her very much. Keeps calling her Phlegm. _

_Anyway we're getting Hermione in two weeks. We'll try to collect you around then as well, earlier if we're lucky. Hang in there Harry! I know your summers already going to be rough so don't let the muggles make it worse!_

_Ron_

Harry immediately felt guilty. Once he left, they were going to be so angry with him. But still, Harry couldn't bring himself to change his mind. He realized that he actually wanted to leave England. He wanted to be a normal teenager (and Dagger pretty much exuded being a teenager). He certainly didn't want to be known as the Boy-Who-Lived or the Chosen One or whatever. Fighting Voldemort shouldn't have to be his job.

Harry sighed. He told Hedwig to wait in the tree and walked inside to get a paper and pen from the front desk. He wrote a quick response, leaving out where he was going and making it seem like he was still with the Dursleys. He didn't want to lie to them but Harry really didn't want them to try and talk him out of it. Maybe he'd tell them where was later…

Hedwig was still waiting for him by the tree when he walked back out. He had one last thought before reached her. Muggles didn't exactly keep owls as pets. Harry's heart sank a little bit when he realized she'd have to stay here.

"Here girl. Take this to Ron…" He hesitated. "And you should probably stay with him for a while." Hedwig looked at Harry as if to say 'why would I do that?' "I know you're the best owl a guy could have, but flying over the ocean? There's not a lot of places to hunt." Hedwig hooted and Harry swore she was saying 'you wanna bet?' "And I don't think I can take you on the plane."

Hedwig stared at Harry for a few seconds before nibbling on his finger in an affectionate sort of way before taking of for the Burrow. Harry wasn't exactly sure that meant she was going to listen to him or not. She could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be.

"Was that an owl?" Harry jumped and turned towards the voice. Dagger was watching Hedwig's progress as she flew away.

"Y-Yeah I think so. Weird huh?" Harry said nervously. Dagger just smiled and shrugged.

"We don't get a whole lot of owls in New Jersey. Especially not during the day. So, are you doing alright? You've been out here for a while." Dagger jumped up and grabbed onto a branch above her. She used the trunk of the tree to help pull herself up. She sat down, legs just dangling there, and looked at Harry expectantly. Harry raised his broken arm in response, and she looked a little ashamed.

"I'm doing fine. Great actually! I've decided I want to go with you guys!" Dagger beamed at him.

"Didn't I tell you that you didn't have a choice in the matter?" She asked jokingly.

"Well then, I'm just getting more excited about it then!" Harry retorted.

"That's good! Oh, all my friends so excited to meet you already! Most likely because they want to rub it in that I hit you with a car but still!... You'll love it there too! Ten minutes from the beach, an hour from New York City! Best of all, mom and dad said you could stay in the guest house, you lucky dog you!"

"Wait, a guest house? I'd be fine with just a bedroom…" Dagger just smiled at him again.

"We figured you hadn't had enough time to be just a teenager, so we thought we'd make it a little easier for you to be… well… be a teenager." She gave him a sly look for just a moment. "You'll be able to throw parties or have girls over anytime you wanted!" Dagger winked at him, and Harry knew that he was turning red.

"Really?" Harry asked, curious despite his embarrassment. It certainly sounded like a good deal.

"Yeah! I mean, as long as you don't like super abuse the house and don't get into trouble. And, you know… practice safe sex!" Again she gave him a sly look that turned him even redder. Dagger giggled at him. Harry frowned at her.

"You like to embarrass people, don't you?" Dagger jumped out of the tree, stumbling a bit as she landed.

"Yes, Harry, I really do. It's all in good fun though! You should get used to it too. A lot of my friends have a dirty sense of humor."

"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said with a smirk. Dagger surprised him then by giving him a hug. He, however, did not let her know how much the hug actually hurt him. He hoped the bruise went away pretty quickly.

"I'm glad you're going to be coming with us. It's been a long time since I've had a new person to corrupt!" Harry wasn't exactly sure what she meant by that, but it certainly sounded fun. "C'mon! I feel like I need to catch you up on how teenagers act."

* * *

"What do you mean, 'they're gone?'" The twins shrunk away from their mother, who was rapidly turning red. They had unfortunately been tasked with telling their mother that the Dursleys, and Harry as well, were not at Number Four Privet Drive. They blamed Ron for their misfortune. He was the one who had been worried about Harry and asked them to go check on him. Just because they could Apparate and he couldn't. There was also a fair bit of walking involved because they couldn't just Apparate directly to Harry's Aunt and Uncle's house.

Well perhaps blaming Ron wasn't quite warranted. It was probably best that they learned of these developments as soon as possible. Still. Angering Molly Weasley was almost not worth it. And anything the Dursleys did was usually enough to set her off.

"Gone, as in not there."

"Disappeared."

"Absent."

"Dep-"

"Alright, alright!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, rubbing her temple. "Explain to me what you're mean?"

"Well Ronnie here had this idea that Harry was in trouble," George began.

"On account that Harry sent a letter to him in the middle of the night." Fred continued.

"So he-"

"It had gotten soaked so I couldn't read it." Ron interjected impatiently. "I wrote back to him but I decided to ask Fred and George to go check on Harry without waiting for a response." The twins gave Ron an annoyed look to which he shrugged. "You guys were taking too long. What'd you find?"

"Well little brother, we found nothing."

"Nada."

"Zilch."

"Looks like they'd packed up and left months ago."

"We even broke in to confirm-" Wrong thing to say.

"You BROKE into the muggle's house!?" Mrs. Weasley shrieked. Everyone flinched and took several steps away from Fred and George. "WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THOSE AWFUL DURSLEYS HAD BEEN THERE!?"

"We probably would stunned them,"

"Maybe turned them into something that better resembles their slimy personality." The twins' devilish smiles graced their lips.

"Oh the possibilities…" They turned to each other and started rattling of animal names that would best suit the Dursleys. Ron and Ginny nearly laughed, but knew better not to because Mrs. Weasley was clearly ready to throttle their brothers. With what Ron could only describe as divine intervention, Harry's owl flew in between the pranksters and their mother, distracting all three. Hedwig landed and held her leg out for Ron, who untied the note and began to read.

"Well?" Ginny pressed anxiously. "What's it say?" Ron kept mouthing words as though he wasn't quite sure what he was reading.

"Get this. _'Ron, don't worry about the first letter. It was a false alarm. Dursleys showed up really late last night. Uncle Vernon must've gotten a promotion because they were in the middle of moving to another house. They're grudgingly taking me along now so I guess I got lucky, but everything's fine now.'_ Does any of that add up to you?" Ron scanned the letter once more. "The rest is just a response to what I sent him, but he signed it _'I'll catch up to you eventually, but it might be a while longer before I see you'. _We're getting him in two weeks aren't we? I guess we'll have to find him now but still…"

"Does it say where he went?" Mr. Weasley asked, speaking after a long moment. Ron shook his head. Ginny swore softly under her breath and the twins seemed to thinking hard about something. Either they'd just come up with a new prank idea or…

"There was way too much dust for them to have just moved away, right George?"

"Right you are Fred. Was practically breathing it instead of oxygen when we got inside."

"So either the Dursleys became super slobs before they moved-"

"Or Harry's lying to us."

"Harry is a bad liar…" Ron said, to which Ginny agreed.

"But why would Harry be lying? Remus said he made it to Dursleys just fine…" But with a growing look of horror, Mrs. Weasley looked to her husband.

"Remus told us that he left Harry a couple blocks from their house to help the Order…" Mr. Weasley said, comprehension dawning on his face. The twins, Ron and Ginny all groaned, catching on as well.

"Crap, Harry pulled a runner…" Ginny moaned, slapping her palm on her face.

"Or he got captured, and their forcing him to send that letter," Ron said.

"Ron, you are a real ray of sunshine sometimes," Ginny said sarcastically. "And before you ask, yes, I think that Harry would do something like this. Harry has been distant since…" Pause, wipe away a few tears. "Well, more distant anyway. But I did get a good conversation out of him before we left school. It was kinda offhand when he said it, but I got the impression that Harry's become unhappy living in our world. Ron can back me up." Looking incredibly uncomfortable, Ron nodded.

"Hermione as well." Silence. Mr. Weasley left the room, obviously going to contact the Order.

"Do you think he's just on his way here? Or maybe the Leaky Cauldron again?" Mrs. Weasley asked, trying to make it easier on herself. The Weasley kids gathered all exchanged a look. They knew the answer. This time Harry wouldn't be anywhere where they could find them. At least not for a while.

* * *

**A/n: Hey again! Like I said, I've gotten a little busy. College doesn't help the writing for fun aspect of writing but thats what happens. To the chapter I did have to cut Dagger's POV out of it... It just wasn't coming out very well. All in all this chapter didn't quite come out how I wanted but... Well I wanted to move. I didn't come out that bad did it?**

**Feedback is always appreciated! And don't be afraid to ask questions! I enjoy them. It means people wanna know! **

**As for questions: I believe a Miss Ashley asked me if Dagger was going to be Harry's sweetheart. Well I can honestly say... Um... well I haven't decided yet. It was of course the original intention of mine but that was for the other Dagger. Now they're going to be living together (Sort of). So yeah. I don't know yet. Thanks for thinking Dagger's interesting enough though! :D  
**

**As for Mary-Sue's... Well a lot of OC's are going to be in this story. I'm sure not every one of them is going to be great so if they get too bland or MarySueish please let me know! Pointers would be helpful too!**

**Thats all for now! I hope you guys are okay with Harry's destination. I know they've been done before, and they're Cliche. But its a Harry Wins kinda story so I figured I could move him to a place I know a lot better. I'll do my best to keep it different! I swear. Super original plans are hard to come by but... Well I'll do my best!**

**MB is out! Peace! and X's and O's of course!**

**Oh and I really like reviews! and Questions!**


	3. New Home and New Friends

**A/n: It's been something of a long time... Hope some of you guys are still out there! Warning: Some of the characters in this chapter don't quite have complete personalities or looks. Have fun! Hope you enjoy the move.**

A Muggle Side of Things

Chapter 3

New Home and New Friends

"Ulck… You're sunny optimism is raining on my parade…" It had been a week since they realized that Harry had run off and they had absolutely no leads as to where he might have gone. Professor Dumbledore was again restating that he did not believe Harry had been captured by Death Eaters, believing that Voldemort would most likely be more public about holding him if he had indeed been taken. Ginny conceded that as a valid point, Harry being seen as Voldemort's public enemy numero uno. Still, Ginny still had plenty of pessimist left in her.

They'd sent Hedwig after Harry in an attempt to get him to come clean about where he was. Unsurprisingly, it hadn't worked and Harry's owl returned to Grimmauld Place sans any letter (demands really) they sent or any that Harry sent them back. They sent Hedwig out more recently but this time the owl had not returned. Harry was certainly ignoring them, and Ginny couldn't blame him, not after all the scathing messages he just received. Ginny did her best not to think of any other explanation. And failed… If it wasn't Death Eaters than it might be that Harry was depressed… Ginny shook away her dark thoughts, realizing that her brother was talking to her.

"What's wrong with you?" Ron asked with a sneer on his face. "Weren't you ragging on me for being a pessimist the other day?" Ginny glared at him for a moment before taking a deep breath.

"Sorry, I'm just… worried." Ginny shrugged her shoulders helplessly. She and Harry might not have the best of relationships, that stupid crush effectively killing a couple years of Harry getting to know her, but Ginny certainly wasn't going to hold that against him. She definitely didn't want him hurt or missing or run away. She sighed. _Damn him…_

"It's perfectly understandable, Miss Weasley." Professor Dumbledore said in his normal grandfatherly voice. Ginny hoped the urge to slap him very hard would eventually disappear. It could lead to nothing but getting her into lots of trouble. But, damn if it wasn't a most amusing thought. "But Professor Snape has assured us that Voldemort is not holding Harry anywhere and I'm inclined to believe him."

"Yes, because the word of Snivellus is enough to convince me. He doesn't care a wink about Harry! Do you even think he's really trying to look for him?" Ginny used the nickname she'd overheard Harry calling Snape when he was in a particularly foul mood. She never got around to getting the story about the name but it sounded like something slimy which fit the greasy professor to a tee.

"_Professor_ Snape, Miss Weasley." Dumbledore corrected. He was seriously testing Ginny's patience. "And I trust-"

"Don't bother Dumbledore," came a voice that Ginny instantly pin-pointed as incredibly angry. Snape had been lurking at the side of the kitchen just waiting for the conversation to end. Ginny wasn't sure, but Snape's usual look of contempt had morphed into pure hatred and that look of pure hatred was directed solely at Ginny. Ginny matched his look without flinching. He must really not like Harry's nickname for him. She made a mental note to ask Harry once he was found.

"It doesn't matter if a group of foolish teenagers believe me or not." Snape's eyes continued to bore into Ginny's and she had a peculiar feeling that she couldn't quite place. Dumbledore must have asked a question because he finally shifted his attention away from her. She shook the nasty feeling away and took stock of the people that had joined them. Fred and George were back from their shop, and Remus and Tonks had returned from looking for Harry around Diagon Alley. All four of them looked excited and downcast at the same time so Ginny figured they had good news and bad news.

"-But sir! As loathe as I am to admit this, the Weasley pup has a point. Why are you sending me out to find the spoiled brat?" Snape asked, his usual uncheerful looks becoming even sourer by the second. It was delicious. "He's not worth my time. A simple coward who ran away. I could be more useful figuring out what the Dark Lord is planning." He was actually whining! Definitely delicious!

Ginny, of course, was getting fired up again. Harry was not a coward! Sure it looked more and more like he ran away but if she was the one that the entire wizarding world was flip-flopping their opinion on, she would probably want to leave as well.

"Then leave," Ginny said, rounding on Snape. _I really shouldn't be doing this… _"I think I can speak for everyone here… except Dumbledore, when I say that we don't trust you at all to find Harry. So go, make yourself useful for a change." She could feel Ron, Fred and George's terrified faces staring at the back of her head, but it was too late now to take it back. Snape's venomous stare returned to Ginny as he sputtered with rage.

"Why you insolent little mongr-"

"Ginny," she interjected calmly. "My name is Ginny." Ginny waited a beat before shooting another scathing _"Snivellus!_" at the man in question. That did it. Before Ginny had a chance to blink, the exact moment when she heard Harry use the name swam in front of her eyes. That nasty feeling returned and Ginny remembered overhearing Harry complaining about Snape making his mind easier for Voldemort to infiltrate.

Ginny hoped the urge to slap Snape very hard would eventually disappear... quickly. It could lead to nothing but getting her into lots of trouble. But, damn if it wasn't a most amusing thought. Ginny broke eye contact and counted to twenty in her head… Before crossing the room and punching Snape right in the mouth as hard as she could muster. Apparently, the urge to slap Snape had disappeared after all.

"Ginny!" Ginny winced. Her mother had entered just as she landed her punch. Snape gathered himself up off the floor and Ginny fully expected him to retaliate like the petty man he was. However, he simply glared his deeply rooted hatred at Ginny and then swooped out of the room like a bat outta hell. Ginny winced again. _This was going to come up again later._

"Maybe that'll teach you to poke around in a teenage girls mind!" Ginny shouted at his retreating back. Only Remus, Dumbledore and Ron reacted, Remus and Dumbledore throwing their own disapproving looks at Snape as he left and Ron turning red and muttering swear words under his breath. Fred, George and Tonks looked confused. Molly, on the other hand, looked to have not even heard what Ginny had said and was rearing up to yell. Ginny thought it best to brace herself.

"GINEVRA MOLLY WEASLEY! YOU MARCH YOURSELF STRAIGHT TO YOUR ROOM AND THINK ABOUT HOW YOU'RE GOING TO APOLOGIZE TO THE PROFESSOR IMMEDIATELY!" Molly screeched, her volume nearly hitting howler levels on its own. _'Not a chance in hell,' _Ginny thought, smirking as she walked past everyone one and out of the room. She faked going up the stairs and doubled back to the kitchen as quietly as possible.

"Well, now that all the… excitement is over with," Dumbledore started with a tone that suggested that he was either disapproving or amused. Probably both. "You four look ready to burst. Perhaps you have found out where young Harry has been?"

"Not quite, but we did catch sight of him in Diagon Alley," said Remus. "I think it's safe to say that he's not actually staying on the Alley."

"What do you mean?" Molly asked the room impatiently at the same time Ron asked, "If you found Harry, why isn't he here?"

"I think its best you start from the beginning," Dumbledore to stave off all the other questions that had been about to be thrown at the ex-professor.

"Well, first there was nothing,"

"Then, there was a joke shop!"

"I don't think he means that far back," Molly said crossly.

"Right… well, it started off as an ordinary day,"

"You know, selling off our wonderful products,"

"Trinkets, pranks, potions…"

"Toys, gadgets-"

"Boys!"

"Sorry mum…"

"What they're, somewhat, trying to get at," Remus said, clearly trying to keep the twins from getting hurt by their own mother. "Is that they spied Harry looking into their shop window. Unfortunately they couldn't get away from their customers fast enough to catch up to him before he headed back towards the Leaky Cauldron."

"They did manage to catch us as we were passing by and pointed us in the right direction," Tonks added, joining in on the conversation for the first time.

"So did you catch up to him or not?" Ron asked, excited at the thought of good news about Harry. Ginny could hear him tapping his foot repeatedly on the floor. There was a pause, and Ginny could imagine Remus and Tonks exchange a look, unsure of how to go on.

"Well we did… but…" Tonks began but trailed off.

"But?" One of the twins asked when the silence stretched on.

"We were about to confront him when he… uh…" Remus tried this time but he too trailed off. Ginny was wondering what could be perplexing the old professor and an auror so much. Did Harry do something that he normally wouldn't? "He sat down with a girl and her family?" The way Remus said that, he was clearly wondering if the event had even happened. Ginny had to agree. _Since when does Harry sit down with people he doesn't know?_

"What? That doesn't sound like Harry." That was Ron. Ginny briefly wondered which part of that sentence Ron thought didn't sound like Harry. That he could possibly like a girl or that he'd talk to people he didn't know. Someone else must've had the same thought because Ron quickly back peddled. "I-I mean did you know who they were? Harry usually doesn't really talk to random people… And why didn't you just grab him? Harry can find a girlfriend when he's no longer grounded."

"No we didn't recognize the family." Remus said, and there was yet another awkward pause. "And as for not grabbing him, well… Equal parts shocked and confused coupled with the fact that they left the Leaky Cauldron almost as soon as Harry sat down with them."

"They were also muggles," Tonks added, furthering the confusion of the group. "And since they didn't seem to know about magic, we didn't think it would have been a good idea to go over and take Harry in front of them. That girl was kind of cute and definitely his age- Here let me show you!- so maybe she was Harry's girlfriend? Did he ever mention anyone from his muggle days to any of you?" Ginny chanced a look around the door frame so she could watch the metamorphagus change. She changed herself into a petite teenage girl about a head taller than Ginny, with long wavy blond hair and a pink and blue stripe running through it. Tonks did a little spin, showing off a little bit when she spotted Ginny. Though stiffening, Ginny noticed that Tonks's face was still her own indicating that they hadn't gotten close enough to get every detail. Against her better judgment, Ginny used that fact to deny that Tonks's assessment of the girl's looks were accurate.

Ginny probably should have realized it sooner but if she could see Tonks's face, that it stood to reason that Tonks would be able to see her as well. But she hadn't, so when she was called out she nearly jumped out of her skin and fled up the stairs. "Ginny, you can come on out. You're Harry's friend too, so perhaps you can help us." Putting on a slightly guilty face, she walked back into the kitchen. Only her mother seemed surprised- angry rather, but Remus quickly placated her- that Ginny had been eavesdropping.

"No, Harrys never mentioned any muggle friends to us," Ron said after a thoughtful pause. "Other than those monsters he lived with and the woman who turned out to be the squib from down the lane, we were under the impression that he didn't have any muggle friends at all." Ginny and the Twins nodded their agreement. Tonks looked between the Weasleys before settling back on Ron.

"Monsters?" Tonks asked, looking a little distressed. Ron was immediately on the defensive.

"There were-" Ron started out, but the twins had heard it enough to jump in on it.

"There were bars on his window!"

"Geeze, Ron stop acting like we weren't there."

"Yeah, we were kind of the one's that flew you to Harry's place."

"So eliminating theories, if it isn't one of Harry's friends from the past and he's not with the Death Eaters," Remus said, stroking his chin in thought. Dumbledore, missing that sometimes annoying twinkle in his eyes, let out a heavy sigh and sat down.

"Then perhaps Harry's friends are new ones," Molly said. "The question is, is Harry that angry with us that he'd up and leave?" It was clear to Ginny that the thought of Harry being angry with her was a particularly distressing thought. Obvious to anyone who really paid attention, Molly considered Harry part of the family and him running away because of them would be a truly painful event. Of course in Ginny's mind, it was also very unlikely. Because of the wizarding world as a whole, yeah she could see that, but not because of his friends. It most likely had something to do with Sirius and when she voiced the thought Remus and Tonks said that they could get behind that theory.

"I think, given all that has happened to Harry since he has rejoined our world, that I may have…" Dumbledore trailed off, finally looking his one hundred plus years in Ginny's eyes. "I may have put the final nail in scaring him away from us. Molly, Remus, Tonks, If I may have a moment of your time." Ginny nearly protested some more. She had a feeling it was about that prophecy they nearly got their hands on at the Ministry. But seeing as though she had about used up all of her mother's patience, she thought it best to let this one slide. As Ron, herself, and the twins were promptly booted out of the kitchen, Ginny brought her thoughts back to almost-girl who was now the new mystery. _Who was she, and why would Harry leave with her?_

* * *

It turned out that Harry's summer was about as hectic as it had been the year before. That didn't mean it wasn't enjoyable. Harry looked at it this way. Last year it had been dementor attacks, a broom ride across England, and a trial. This year it was car accidents, shopping sprees, a cross-Atlantic flight in a jumbo jet, first class, and a new home. It was pretty much the anti-summer to all of Harry's other summers. That pretty much made it perfect.

He learned a number of things about his new friends (he wasn't quite ready to call them his family, even though he was now legally so) during the short week that he'd known them. One, they didn't seem to be hurting on money. That shopping spree had them buying almost a thousand pounds worth of clothes for Harry as well as a new pair of glasses. Harry kept telling them that they didn't need to buy him anything but they played it off as no big deal and that it hadn't even been a dent. Two, the money didn't seem to actually mean a thing to them. Despite just being the three of them, they gave off the same air that Harry felt when he was around the Weasleys. The family dynamic was slightly different with Dagger being an only child (there was a lot less bickering and rivalry to be sure), but Harry certainly felt like they were cared just as much about each other as his friends back in England. That being said, Harry also learned that Dagger was a "right and proper teenager", with a rebellious streak that he was fairly certainly her parents only had a faint inkling of knowledge about.

True to her word, she did her best to educate him on the ways of the teenage boy, which for now meant listening to all the music she had with her, talking about how he should have dated a few girls by now, stealing the tiny alcoholic beverages the first-class plane had offered "for later", and a promise that she would show him more when she was "less encumbered by the 'rents". The music was far the best part of the deal by far (Harry enjoyed a large chunk of the music that Dagger had him listen too), he didn't explain to her about Cho Chang (the bigger reason for not sharing was because it had been a disaster instead of it not really working with the story he'd given her), and he was not a stranger to alcohol by any means (Fred and George or Seamus had usually been suppliers for the after Quidditch victory parties). The idea of being a teenager like Dagger, who was clearly something of a partier, both excited and made him feel guilty at the same time. On the one hand, hanging out with Dagger over the past week had slightly lessened the feeling of the world resting on Harry's shoulders. On the other hand, he felt as if he shouldn't be having any fun while his friends were still caught up in the wizarding war. Still, he'd made his choice and Harry was determined not to regret it.

He needed to actually live. Not just be a pawn in a war that shouldn't have been thrust on his shoulders.

"Harry?" He'd been zoning out, thinking of his old friends now on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He made another quick choice to find them again one day before turning to Dagger sitting next to him.

"You alright?" she asked, giving him a concerned glance. He nodded and Dagger smiled a bright smile at him. "Feeling overwhelmed I'm sure? I get it. C'mon Harry, we're home! Let's get you to your new room slash house!"

"Room slash house?"

"Your room is going to be our guest house, remember?" He hadn't, and it was another example of the Jovanovich's generous nature. Harry certainly didn't deserve to be found by people like this… Harry shook his head. Those were the thoughts he was trying to leave behind.

_Think positive. An hour ago I saw New York City from the sky. I am now in a new country with a new fam- with new friends and a chance to make a new life. And… wow! That is one big house!_

They'd taken a turn down a short back road and then another quick turn onto a circular driveway with a little fountain in the middle. There was a rail that separated the road from a small lake to his right (there was a little bridge to an island in the middle that Harry thought he'd explore later) but the truly exquisite sight was the colonial style house to his left. It was a beautiful white house, complete will a little lakeside front porch with a balcony above it, a very large, colorful garden and a maple tree that overshadowed the whole backyard. The houses around it were equally large and exquisite, but all of them had a bit of a newer touch to them, at least to Harry's eye. A comment from Nicole told him that the house was one of the oldest houses in the neighborhood at a hundred and thirty-five years.

Stepping out of the car, Harry could immediately feel the sun shining on him and he hadn't realized how long it had been since he'd actually seen or felt the sun's rays. A breeze picked up and Harry could smell the ocean, which couldn't have been more than a half a mile down the road. It wasn't as harsh as the last time he smelt the sea all those years ago in the cabin. Harry closed his eyes and soaked it all in. Perhaps he could finally regain some control in his life here.

"It does feel nice doesn't it? Another day of rain and I'm pretty sure I'd go on one _heck_ of a killin' spree." Dagger smiled at him. Closing her eyes, she mimicked Harry's last move and took a deep breath. "C'mon. Let's go get you settled in." Dagger grabbed his elbow and pulled him along to the backyard. It took Harry a moment to realize that she'd grabbed his luggage instead of her own.

"Make sure you get him comfortable before you have too much fun!" Nicole called as the teens rounded the back of the house. The backyard was a lot simpler than the front. A little patio, complete with a grill and an umbrella covered table, the big maple tree that Harry saw from the car, and a little building that looked a bit out of place among all the huge houses that the neighborhood had to offer. All of this surrounded by flat grass and a high brown fence.

The little building was obviously once a garage if the large open door was anything to go by. Judging by all the boxes that were stacked outside, the building had been long used as a storage building. A pair of trucks were parked nearby, loaded up with a large amount of furniture. People of all shapes and sizes wandering to and from the trucks, unloading everything in a very efficient manner. Harry whistled appreciatively.

"I thought you were kidding when you told me that you'd have your friends help out," Harry said with a smile at his friend.

"Best damn friends you could ever ask for!" Dagger replied, her grin something that would make the Cheshire Cat jealous. Harry watched her look towards the group and could tell she was doing a mental head count. She frowned slightly. "I don't think they all made it. They definitely would have finished by now if they were."

Dagger paused by the door for a moment before setting Harry's trunk down just inside the door. Calling a quick 'hey' to her friends, she turned to Harry and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, these guys, my friends? They're your friends now too, okay? My friends. Your friends." Harry vaguely wondered if he should be insulted that Dagger clearly thought he'd never made a friend of his own. She gave him another radiant smile though, so Harry figured that wasn't the case. _Besides, _Harry thought, _Its not as if I can tell her about the Weasleys or Hermione or... that crew. Maybe, when she inevitably finds out who I really am... if she still talks to me after that is._ Because even Harry knew that eventually he wouldn't be able to keep the other world a secret, whether he decided to tell her and her parents on his own or if circumstances forced him to tell them.

"Now go on in there and have fun! Make sure they set up the room to how you like it. I'mma go take a quick shower and I'll be right there." And before he could even ask why, Dagger had turned and flown through the back door to the main house and two of her friends walked out to pick up the last piece of furniture from the back of the truck. They veered off towards Harry upon noticing him standing outside the door.

Harry immediately felt like he'd been dwarfed, as both boys were easily at least a half-foot taller than him and heavily muscled. One of the boys was moving a bit faster than the other, a little more threateningly. His black hair was buzzed incredibly short and he had the comings of a little beard on his chin, although Harry saw him rub it distastefully with his hand. His dark brown eyes were staring him down with distrust and he looked ready to bark something but the other boy quickly caught up to his friend and stepped in front of him.

"Whoa! Easy bro," he said, raising his elbow to stop the progress of the slightly larger boy. This boy had short brown hair that was long enough to gel into something of a mini mohawk. Harry noticed that this boy showed evidence of a semi recent broken nose, complete with dark bags under his eyes and a dark bruise on his cheek. "See the cast? This boy's our stray. Don't mind the big guy," the boy said turning to Harry. "He's usually a big ol' softy off the ice, but someone broke into his car the other day. He hasn't quite gotten over it."

The taller boy grumbled at being called a softy and mumbled out an apology, earning a quick chuckle from the other. The hardness in his eyes had disappeared and there was now a slightly embarrassed smirk on his face. He approached Harry once again at a much less aggressive pace.

"Miles Horne, right wing," he said extending his left hand for Harry to shake. Harry internally applouded himself for not flinching whe he spoke. Miles's deep voice was still intimidating even when he was no longer trying to intimidate. "Mohawk over there is Buck Sanders. He plays defence." Buck also shook with left hand, although he looked a little less comfortable doing so.

"Harry Potter." Harry wasn't quite sure why Miles had added the position of whatever sport he and Buck played – Buck had said 'off the ice' so Harry figured hockey would be the right guess, a sport he had only really learned about on the plane ride here- and he was unsure if that his way of asking if he played. Both boys seemed to be sizing him up, so it appeared as though he was right again.

"What do ya think Buck?" Miles asked his teammate. "Think we can make a good player outta 'im? Not overly small, a little too skinny, but that is an easy fix. Definitely tough. Dagger told Aurora that he'd probably have bruises for at least a couple weeks, but I certainly don't see any." That was true enough. As Harry predicted, his injuries had healed faster than the doctor had expected. He knew he would have to keep the damn cast on the whole time that he was supposed to. He didn't think the muggles would really accept the fact that his wrist healed in half the time it was supposed to, or at the very least it would look a little suspicious. Harry's silver lining was that he probably wouldn't need that brace once that cast was finally removed. He was also thankful that the fracture hadn't been severe enough to warrant a sling for his arm.

"He definitely got a speedy build to him. Good winger material I'd say. After we tought him how to skate and play the game, of course." Harry, amused, let them talk it out as they made a show of walking in circles around him. He already expressed interest of learning to the game to Dagger, when she had explained it to him earlier. She'd been absentmindedly drawing the team's logo onto his cast when he had noticed it and questioned Dagger about what it was. After once again claiming hatred for the Dursleys treatment of Harry ("_not letting boys watch hockey games should be a crime!"_) and absolute disbelief that Harry didn't know who the Pittsburgh Penguins were nor what hockey was really about, Dagger had shown him clips of games that she had recorded with her phone.

Harry had been impressed by the game from the start. He quickly changed his opinion and decided that this ice-played sport was the closest muggle sport to the wizarding world's Quidditch, despite Quidditch being a mix of futba- soccer, baseball and basketball played on brooms like he'd thought when he first learned of them game. Hockey was fast paced, required an interesting variety of skills, and could most definitely be brutal and hard hitting. It would be the perfect sport substitute in his new adventures as a muggle, provided he could learn how to play the game. _Dagger must have texted that ahead, _Harry realized with a smile.

"Nah, offensive defenseman all the way. He looks like a guy who could pick a spot on the goal and score it from the point," Miles argued, stopping in front of Harry again. "I think you nailed that speedy part, Sanders. Must be a first." Buck just shook his head amused. He quickly stepped up to Harry before he could react and poked Harry in the ribs. Harry may have been a little sore, but the little jab didn't really aggrivate any of the injuries. He raised an eyebrow at Buck as if to say _'Really?'_

"You done?" Miles and Buck exchanged a look.

"Definitely tough," they said together before Miles threw a smirk at Buck. "Although you're really not a heavy-hitter. I bet he could take you in a fight with his one good hand." _Yeah that's incredibly unlikely..._ Buck just laughed it off.

"Hey, that's alright, bro. People who beat me in fights tend to be absolutely steamrolled by you!"

"Ain't that the truth!" The two teammates bumped their fists together, before sending Harry into the guest house ahead of them. He'd barely entered the building when he ran headfirst into Dagger, who had apparently taken an extremely quick shower and beaten him inside while he'd been talking to the hockey players. He did a double take though when he noticed confusion cross her face. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't Dagger at all but a girl that looked nearly identical. However instead of the pink colored eyes that he had been growing used to seeing, Harry was looking into a set of sapphire blue eyes and where Dagger had the pink and light blue stripes of hair on one side, this girl had blue and purple stripes of on the opposite side.

Recognition passed through her eyes and before he could react, the Dagger impostor squealed and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. _My seeker reflexes must be snoozing today. _The girl suddenly gasped and released her iron grip on him, looking rather ashamed of herself.

"I'm so sorry! Sammy said that your sides are extremely bruised and that hug probably hurt like hell-" Harry put up a calming hand before the girl burst into tears. She took a quick breath and threw him Dagger's shy smile. It threw Harry off for a moment, but he shook it off. He lifted up his shirt so that she could see that the bruises were all nearly gone.

"No harm done," Harry said with a smile. "Okay?" Dagger's twin nodded, her smile growing back to normal size. "So... If you're Dagger's twin, why weren't you in England with them?" He watched her roll her eyes and shake her head at him.

"Ugh, she got to you too?" She asked exasperatedly. Harry turned his head to the side and looked at her in confusion. "You know she gave herself that nickname? All because she has a tattoo of the character on her back! You can't give yourself a nickname!" Harry blinked in surprise. Dagger hadn't told him about any tattoo. As Miles and Buck walked by her with the simple white recliner chair, Miles reached out a hand and ruffled her hair.

"There's no rule that says you can't nickname yourself, little Aurie."

"Well there should be! I don't know why she doesn't like Samantha..." She shook her head. "Anyways. I wasn't in England with Sammy because we aren't actually twin sisters. She's actually my cousin! My name's Aurora Jovz. We live next door." _Well... that's mind blowing... _Harry blinked a few times and the seconds ticked on as he tried to figure out how it was possible.

"But you're identical..." was all that Harry could manage to say. Aurora smirked at him.

"Only nearly identical! My eyes are blue, her eyes are grey. She's about four months older than me, and I'm about an inch and a half shorter. Oh, and my bra size is two cup sizes larger than hers." Aurora winked at him, laughing as his eyes widened a bit. "Not that you should ever try to differentiate us that way. She is your new sister and that makes me your new cousin!" Harry struggled for a moment to keep his flinch internal. They weren't his family... at least not yet...

"I don't think that app- owowow!" Buck had clearly been about to say something inappropriate but one of the other girls in the room had grabbed his ear and started tugging.

"Dude, don't even go there."

"Oh, c'mon Aurora!" called a different boy that Harry hadn't met yet. "Cut the new guy some slack. You're clearly terrorizing him."

"Oh alright! I'll tell him! Spoilsport... It's pretty simple actually. My mom and her mom are twins, and my dad and her dad are brothers." Harry was still trying to wrap his head around it when Dagger walked in, closing the garage door behind her.

"Don't think to hard on it Harry. The odds that we turned out this way are still astronomical. Especially considering that our dads aren't twins at all." Dagger took a seat in the newly acquired recliner and looked at Harry expectantly. When he just stared at her quizzically, she rolled her eyes. "Didn't you look around at all? What do you think?"

"He bowled into Aurie and she kinda blindsided him by looking like you," Miles supplied to Dagger. "He's got an excuse. You and her very ho- OW! Stop hitting me!"

"Then you need to stop being a pig," Dagger said, holding her wrist as though she'd hurt it. "Just because you're monstrous doesn't mean I can't kick your ass. Now Harry, look around and tell me what you think."

Despite it being on the small side, the room was pretty spacious. It was all one room except for the bathroom that Harry could see on the opposite corner, most of which had white carper covering the floors except for an area cut out where the kitchen area was. The kitchen looked pretty complete, with a refrigerator, a microwave and an oven, as well as plenty of cabinet space. An island nearby passed as the dining table, with a handful of matching bar chairs. The rest of the room was dedicated to the furniture, a black and white set of reclining chairs, a dark green "L" shaped couch, and an entertainment center that from Harry could had just about everything. Harry could already tell that he was going to have a hard time figuring out how everything worked as his knowledge of electronics was limited to whatever the muggleborns brought into Hogwarts with them.

"I like it! You guys set it up really well!" Everyone in the room nodded their acknowledgement. "This stuff all looks brand new, so who do I owe money and how much. My parents left me some money I just could never access it without the Dursleys knowing about it." But they'd all turned away as soon as he'd started the sentence.

"That's a negative ghostwriter. This stuff's on us," Aurora said with a smile. "Besides, my mom and dad bought most of the furniture and we are family now. Get that through your head."

"The kitchen has always been there, as well as the bedroom, so there's that." Dagger explained further. "Pretty sure everyone chipped in something. Look, its just simple housewarming stuff. You know, necessary furniture, video games, computer... Point is, please just accept okay? Your money is no good here." Harry sighed, realizing that Dagger or the others wouldn't accept any of it back or any money for it. Nor did even remotely have enough money to pay them back in the first place, at least on hand. _At least I do have a reason to find the wizarding world on this end, see if I can access my vault from here. Maybe I can ask Herm... well... shoot... Another way then._

"Now, c'mon. Lets go check your bedroom, see what they did to it." Dagger said, leading to the spiral stairs on the other side of the room. "C'mon guys, we'll do all the introductions upstairs.

The bedroom was pretty simple. The same white carpet and white walls as before. In a continuing pattern, the single bed was fitted with a white Pittsburgh Penguins comforter with matching pillows. Other than that, there was a desk, a couple of bookshelves, and a dresser, all empty. It was a little too white in Harry's opinion, but he figured that was the point. He could change that easily enough.

"So, I'm beginning to see a theme," Harry joked, pointing at the bed. "Like the Penguins or else?"

"Nah, that's not our thing," One of the girls joked. "It just seems like it sometimes. So. Introductions?"

There was Corina Hale (Tall, brunette, cheerleader type), Jessica Haley (Short, black haired, big into music), Carolyn Sellers (Another short, black haired girl, this one slightly on the chubby side and the only girl that was not wearing a Penguins jersey), and Joey McCall (The shortest of the boys, with semi long dirty blonde hair, and also a player on Miles and Buck's hockey team among other sports), as well as Miles, Buck, and Aurora who he'd already met.

"What about the others? They still comin'?" Dagger asked once introductions were done.

"Well, I called Alexis's place, but Mr. Castle said that something important came up," Aurora said, holding up a finger to Carolyn, who looked ready to say something. Carolyn still mumbled "Dr. Brennon writes better books," before smirking and filing down the stairs after the others. Aurora rolled her eyes and continued as if her friend hadn't spoken at all.

"And Chloe said that she was going to practice with her band before she drove them down. They should be here at around eight o'clock. The rest of the Penguins crew is on vacation, and we didn't invite anyone else. Oh! Michelle is gonna be with them!"

"Chelle's back?" Dagger asked, missing Aurora's smirk as she sought out the mirror on Harry's wall. Harry did notice and tried to question without asking, but Aurora shook her head at him. "Well it's 7:10 right now. I see no reason to _not_start this party now, do you Harry?" Harry agreed. He was curious to know what his new friends did for fun, although he could certainly guess. Dagger bolted down the stairs first, leaving Harry and Aurora in the dust. Aurora just smiled and shook head.

"It's not even going to be _that_ kinda party..."

* * *

**A/N:** **Hello, again... Sorry bout that wait! I had very little time over the past couple months. College... Job... the works... Having to come up with a TON of characters to place as Harry's new friends also proved to be pretty challenging, especially because there a going to be lots of them. As well as coming up with Parents and Teachers and the other various random people. I can say that this group plus the few that come into play in the next chapter will probably be the my main cast. Sorry about the generality that I gave half of the new players but some of them are still being finished... Constructive criticism on the characters (and the story) would be appreciated!**

**I hope you enjoyed Harry's move! And I'm sorry, but my favorite stuff will probably be littered throughout the story, none more so then Hockey and the Penguins, so please don't hold my favorite team against me. After this chapter the next I'll probably cool it down on these two and use them more in the background, although it'll definitely come up again.**

**Oh I also apologize for the exaggeratedness of the canon characters at the beginning of the chapter. I did have a mind to do that on purpose because they probably won't be coming back into my story for a couple chapters.**

**Tata guys! Hope you guys will still stick around. **


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